Is Saban next for Slive's critique?

BATON ROUGE -- First South Carolina, then Sylvester Croom. And now Nick Saban?

The LSU coach's name is expected to come up on the docket today in the office of Southeastern Conference Commissioner Mike Slive.

Slive, who entered the most investigated and punished conference in the nation in 2002 as the law-and-order commish, supported the bowl ban South Carolina and Clemson gave themselves Monday for a brawl after their game Saturday. The decision ruined the Independence Bowl's hopes of hosting new South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier in its Dec. 28 game.

On Tuesday, Slive reprimanded Mississippi State coach Sylvester Croom for his comments about officiating in State's 24-21 home loss to Arkansas on Saturday. State missed on a chance to take a 21-17 lead just before the half when time ran out with it on the 1-yard line. An official appeared to take a lot of time to mark the ball before State could line up for a final play, and time ran out with Arkansas up 17-14.

"I don't want to hear some apology next week," Croom said after the game. Croom was referring to Bobby Gaston, the SEC coordinator of officials, apologizing to Alabama coach Mike Shula last week for a missed pass interference call against LSU that proved critical in the Crimson Tide's 26-10 loss to the Tigers.

"I have reminded coach Croom of his responsibility to comply with the policies of the SEC and this rule," Slive said in a prepared statement. "Any further violation of conference policies of this nature may result in a suspension of coaching duties for one or more games."

SABAN'S TURN?: Saban harshly criticized officials for what he considered giving Ole Miss extra time to get its field goal team on the field for a field goal that got it within 17-16 as the first half expired. He also criticized several holding penalties against his team, an illegal participation call against LSU that resulted in an LSU field goal attempt bouncing off an upright and pass interferences that were not called. Saban spoke threateningly after the game.

"They better be pass interference or they're makeup calls from last week," he said forcefully. "I don't know. I really don't know. But I see them pushing on our guys, and it's not pass interference. And we had like eight holding penalties in this? I hope they're holding. We better not be blocking them to the ground, because that's not holding."

Two days later in a more professional mode, Saban said, "I think the officials do the very best job that they can. I talked to Bobby Gaston about it. He hadn't reviewed it yet when I talked to him. We'll probably get a response from him on the way the whole thing was managed right before the half, which really allowed them to kick the field goal.

"I thought that some of the calls in the game were really technical, especially some of the holding calls. Three or four of them to be exact. When I say technical, that means very hard to see even on film. I thought a couple pass interference calls were very technical."

That may include a pass interference call against Ole Miss on the Tigers' game-winning drive. The play looked like a simple jump ball with both players making incidental contact as they went for it. The Tigers, however, were given a first down at the Ole Miss 21 and scored two plays later.

Saban then turned sarcastic.

"But they made an apology for what they didn't call (in LSU-Bama game), so maybe they're trying to create balance," he said. "I don't know. But let me say this, after watching the film, I'll put the responsibility for how we played on the players and coaches and how we prepared them. The results were created by that, not by the officials."

KIDDING AROUND: Saban had a humorous approach to questions about his stance on the officiating Monday at his weekly press luncheon.

When asked about the calls, Saban said, "Can I ask you a question? Are you just trying to get me in trouble with the commissioner's office?"

When asked if he had yet been fined, Saban kidded, "Not yet. I'm trying to stay out of trouble right now, if you all would just cooperate, just a little bit."

The original question Saturday that started Saban criticizing officials was simply, "What happened on that field goal at the end of the half?"

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Is Saban next for Slive's critique?

First South Carolina, then Sylvester Croom. And now Nick Saban?The LSU coach's name is expected to come up on the docket today in the office of Southeastern Conference Commissioner Mike Slive.